Steve Baron: Freedom of Speech

The ultimate price for voicing your opinion as a newspaper columnist/journalist … is death.

Probably at the hands of some demented, frenzied murderer who was offended by something you had to say.

Last year, Philippine newspaper columnist Joaquin Briones was shot in the back four times by two assailants on a motorbike.

Add to that Ricardo Cabrera, Daphne Caruana Galiza, Jan Kuciak and Samir Kassir — and let’s not forget the 12 people, including journalists, who were gunned down in the Paris office of French magazine Charlie Hebdo in 2015.

It can certainly be a perilous calling, life of the humble — and not so humble — scribe.

The New Zealand Experience

We have not seen such extremes here in New Zealand, though I remember former MP Dale Jones being stabbed in the chest at his electorate office in 1980 by some deranged individual.

And, here in Whanganui, former mayor Michael Laws was king-hit from behind in a local bar by some spineless wimp who quickly ran off. Both survived their ordeal, thankfully.

The life of a New Zealand columnist can have its issues, however.

From speaking to other writers, I’ve heard many reports of physical and verbal abuse; insults while out shopping; and even the occasional truckload of manure being dumped on a columnist’s driveway.

Personal Attacks and Keyboard Warriors

I haven’t experienced any of that myself, but lately I’ve come under attack on these very pages by a few keyboard warriors with some very subjective and derogatory letters.

It seems a columnist/journalist is your best friend when you agree with something they write, but challenge or offend a reader’s belief system in any way, and the religious, political and racist zealots can’t wait to vent their anger.

So a thick skin is a prerequisite for the job, especially when antagonists are quick to jump to conclusions, based on their limited or non-existent knowledge of you through what they have read.

Some of these antagonists who write about me and my columns make me laugh; others I simply brush off after rolling my eyes.

For example, a recent letter writer stated my columns were just publicity seeking because of my stated intent to run for the district council again. What this agitator obviously doesn’t know is that I have been writing these columns for many years — way before I ever even contemplated standing for council.

Still, as Irish playwright Oscar Wilde said: “There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.”

Why I Write

Regardless of what some might think about columnists and journalists, the reason I write these columns is because I care. I care about the community I live in.

So when I see something I don’t agree with, there is a desire to confront that issue and speak out. Writing isn’t a job, it’s a passion — or at least it should be — and I believe in challenging the status quo, thinking outside the square, researching an issue and trying to improve things.

While we all have our different styles and different ways of expressing our views, and we are all different, thankfully. What a sad, boring world it would be if all you ever read on these pages was politically correct claptrap from sweet, agreeable, door-mat-like scribes.

Published in the Whanganui Chronicle, 5th June 2018.

Steve Baron is a New Zealand-based political commentator and author. He holds a BA with a double major in Economics and Political Science from the University of Waikato and an Honours Degree in Political Science from Victoria University of Wellington. A former businessman in the advertising industry, he founded the political lobby group Better Democracy NZ. https://stevebaron.co.nz